The Snowman Contest
The Snowman Contest, also known as The Snow Princess or Statues of Limitations, is a comic story written and drawn by Carl Barks. It features Donald Duck, Huey, Dewey and Louie Duck, a statue of Cornelius Coot (or, according to one aberrant interpretation, his brother Erasmus), Mr and Mrs Astorbilt, and, in their debuts, the Toothbrush-Mustached Mayor, a statue of General Crow, Widow Umble, the Umble Kids and the Giltwallets. Humpty Dumpty and Auguste Rodin are also jokingly mentioned. Plot A chance meeting with exuberant crackpot Professor Batty turns Donald Duck over to “flippism”, the quasi-religious belief that you should never worry about any important life decisions, and instead leave them up to a coin toss. As he applies these teachings with unfailing enthusiasm, Donald just as unfailingly drags his nephews into trouble… References *Huey, Dewey and Louie Duck know Widow Umble and her kids to be residents of one of the poorer neighborhoods of Duckburg. *It is a matter of public knowledge that the Mayor of Duckburg is a fan of Duckburgian history; the Mayor himself later mentions that Cornelius Coot is “his favorite historical hero”. *When squashing itself as it melts, the children's statue of Cornelius is said by Donald Duck to resemble General Crow. Continuity *Fond of this story, Don Rosa reused its unnamed Mayor of Duckburg in several of his stories, beginning with His Majesty, McDuck (1989). *''The Great Toboggan Race'' (2016) saw the return of the Umble Kids, and established that the "poor neighborhood" in which they live is Shacktown, from Carl Barks's A Christmas for Shacktown (1952). *General Crow is included in Johannes A. Grote's Duck Family Tree (1999) as an ancestor of Gyro Gearloose through his paternal grandmother. Moreover, as the original German translation of the story gave Cornelius Coot the name “Erasmus Erpel” instead of the usual “Emil Erpel”, Grote accounted for the gun-wielding Cornelius seen here as a different character from Cornelius; he was depicted as Cornelius's brother. Both Crow and Erasmus were represented using pictures taken from Barks's story. Behind the scenes Written in December of 1955, this story was only printed in January of 1957, over a year later, in Walt Disney's Comics and Stories #196. It was reprinted in #331 of the same book as well as in the various versions of the Carl Barks Library. Australia obtained it in Walt Disney's Comics #131 and #225, while it was first serialized in the United Kingdom under the title of The Snowman Contest in Donald and Mickey #45 and #46 before being reprinted in Donald Duck Comic #3 under the title of The Snow Princess and, once more without a title, in World Distributors #29. The commonly-cited title for the story, used by INDUCKS, is Statues of Limitations, a pun on Statutes of Limitations. However, to the Wiki's knowledge, this title has not actually been used in any English-language printings of the tale. Category:Stories Category:Comic Stories Category:Carl Barks stories Category:1955 stories Category:1957 stories Category:Donald Duck stories Category:Huey, Dewey and Louie Duck stories Category:Cornelius Coot stories Category:Mr Van Astorbilt stories Category:Mrs Van Astorbilt stories Category:Toothbrush-Mustached Mayor stories Category:General Crow stories Category:Widow Umble stories Category:Umble Kids stories Category:Giltwallets stories Category:Humpty Dumpty stories Category:Auguste Rodin stories